remixing - vocals in particular!

hi all!

i'm struggling with vocals at the moment and wondered if any of you guys could help me - im currently tearing my hair out!

problem is i'm currently remixing a track and having never really worked with vocals before am struggling to get the damn thing in time! i have a basic tune layed down and am now trying to get the vocal to sit right.

how do i go about getting the vocal in time? may seem like a basic question but i have been struggling for a while and cant really find an answer!

im using reason v4 - any help would be HUGELY appreciated

i usually warp em in ableton first and then import into recycle.

I then use with dr rex

Since the move to logic I've been using the flex tool a lot

Ok,me no expert here myself,however i have just been using a package called Reaper on trial after a top DJ on here told me to try it.

You can stretch vocals using ALT.Unfortunetly although this gives me some understanding of stretching due to be able to press F2 and change a setting there,its not against the BPM,which is obviously the dogs bollox.If you can go ah,my BPM is 152,this is???,please work! ,then that would be great,but you can't on Reaper i'm afraid so...

I have WavePad for vocals and can't find nothing in there for it either,so i emailed them.They told me you can do BPM timestretching in a package called MIXPAD which they provide.Might be worth checking that out mate on a trial or something.I'm going to try and get it,when i've finished my new one,as i've no idea if vocals are in time apart from on hearing other works and feel.

I also believe you can do it in FL STUDIO using some plugin,someone at facebook told me.

its much easier to play with vox with a sequencer like cubase/logic instead of reason...  use a bpm counter to tap the tempo. or if you dont have one use a stop watch and count how many beats in a minute the track is! then use the time stretching function in your sequencer

 

 if you know the rough tempo then you can also chop up the vocal into single words and manually shift them around until they sit with the track. getting them in key is the hard part... if i'm doing a remix its best to figure the original key of the vocals and create your track in the same key rather than mess about pitch shifting it. this is all about your ears or a plugin called melodyne which will tell you the key.  try playing a piano over the vocals and see what notes sit best.

cool guys thanks for the replies - appreciate it massively!

will have a go at what Dan said first up cos im in a postion to do so (ie i have all the things required!)

Iain - i know exactly what you mean! I am currently learning my way around Cubase but find myself getting frustrated and turning back to Reason as its a sequencer ive learnt on over the last 18 months or so! I have recently bought a book and am reading it intently so hopefully Cubase will click soon!

lets see how it goes today with a hangover

dans way seems ridiculousy complicated. what DAW are you using?

If youre using Reason then def put the sample(s) into Recycle, slice them accordingly and import the finished rex file into the Dr Rex player. Then you can play each slices individually which gives you even more control with timing. 

I've been having a play this afternoon with NCH's Zulu,which is a DJ Beat match thing.

This lets you sync the vocal in one deck to my drums playing in other.

It told me the BPM of vocal,which was useful. So Fly with Me was at 120BPM and my drums were 148BPM.
So when i hit sync it speeded up the bpm to match the beat sounding horrible.

However i'm guessing if i use NCH WavePad which i have i can do something in there to try and make the Fly With Me fit the beat better.Perhaps shove less gap between the Fly With or something,re-import into this Zulu,see what it reckons the BPM is and see if that sounds any better.
 
Or it may be,that obviously this was a silly vocal to try and get fit a 148BPM track i know.It was just an example,so its bound to speed up and sound like Scooter i guess

how is that easier then using a beat slicer?

flex is where it's at

Flex is amazing. That and the drum replacer are the best 2 things about Logic 9